MOTHER LODGE

SHORT TALK BULLETIN - Vol.XI January, 1933
No.1

by: Unknown

The tenderest of Masonic affections cling around this
phrase; men away from home have a longing for their Mother Lodge, indefinable in
words, as etherial as a flower-scent, as actual as the good standing cards they
carry in their pockets.

But what is this that men call Mother Lodge?
Ritual-istically, a Lodge is a legal number of brethren, assembled with a
Charter, or Warrant of Constitution, and the Three Great Knights of Masonry
properly arranged. Legally, it is all the brethren whose names are carried
on the rolls, formed into an organization by recognition from the Grand Lodge
which gave them -or those they succeeded - life as a part of the Grand Lodge
family of Lodges. Physically, a Lodge seems, to the brethren who compose
it, to be the room in the Temple in which they meet. Yet none of these
definitions satisfy the thoughtful as complete.

While a Charter, or Warrant of Constitution, and the
Three Great Lights are necessary for holding a Lodge, the destruction of the
Charter, the loss of the Three Great Lights does not destroy the Lodge.
Duplicate Charters may be issued; new Great Lights may be obtained . . . Read
the words of Brother J.C. Stewart, Cannongate Kilwinning Lodge No.2, Edinburg,
Scotland:

Time’s ravages does Time repair,

Time’s deepest wounds are healed by Time;

The Master passes from the chair,

The Warden to the Chair doth climb.

Master and Warden soon are gone,

The Lodge lives on, The Lodge lives on!

The torch of light is handed down

The ages that so swiftly flee;

Out of our frailty comes renown

And life from our mortality;

The pomps of yesteryear are gone,

The Lodge lives on, the Lodge lives on!‘

The Lodge cannot be “only” the brethren who compose it,
as these continually change. A brother may be removed from the vicinity in
which his Mother Lodge meets, remain away fifty years, and return to find every
brother he knew when he first saw Masonic Light, gone to the Grand Lodge Above.
Yet, his Mother Lodge remains. The Lodge cannot be “only” the room in
which meetings are held. Temples are temporary, Lodges move from room to
room, sometimes from town to town, or even State to State. California
Lodge No. 13, District of Columbia, moved to California in 1849, and became
California Lodge No.1 in the Grand Lodge of that State; many Army Lodges have
traveled far. Yet these are still Mother Lodges to those brethren who are
their sons.

The difficulty of defining just what we so love as our
Mother Lodge is increased by the word “Lodge” having more than one meaning.
The Church is an organized body of worshippers who meet in a church; burn the
edifice, the Church remains. Used in this sense the Lodge is that
indefinable organization that meets in the lodge room. The word has come
down to us from operative days, when workmen erecting a Cathedral built a hut,
or lodge, in which to keep the plans, meet and talk over the work, use as a
recreation hall in bad weather, even to sleep in. “Lodge” is a
legitimate descendent of the good old Anglo-Saxon word “logian” meaning “to
dwell.” Spelled “logge” it is mentioned in our oldest document, the Regius
Poem, 1390. When the word means an organized body of Freemasons, it is in
contradiction to a “Chapter” of Royal Arch Masons, a “Council” of Cryptic
Masons, a “Consistory” of Scottish Rite Masons, a “Commandery” of Knights
Templar.

Occasionally the Lodge is a piece of furniture. In
the beautiful ceremonies of consecration, Dedication and Constitution of a new
Lodge, the symbolic corn, wine and oil are sprinkled upon an actual object,
representing the Lodge. Usually it is an oblong box, covered with white
cloth. This use of an object called “The Lodge,” to visualize the
formation of the new organization, is very old; Preston speaks of it in his
“Illustrations of Masonry,” first edition. 1772, as follows:

“The Grand Master, attended by his Officers, and some
dignified Clergymen, form themselves in order around the Lodge, in the center;
and, all devoutly kneeling, the preparatory prayer is rehearsed. The
Chaplain produces his authority, and being properly assisted proceeds to
consecrate. Solemn music strikes up, and the necessary preparations are
made. The first clause of the consecration prayer is rehearsed, all
devoutly kneeling; and the response is made, Glory to God on High. Incense
is scattered over the Lodge and the Grand Honors of Masonry are given.”

The Mother Lodges of all men now living are Lodges of
Master Masons. They may, indeed, be “open on the First Degree” or “called
off to the Second Degree” but, according to Mackey, in these modern times no
“Lodge of Entered Apprentices” or a “Lodge of Fellowcrafts” can exist.

A Charter or Warrant which empowers them to work as a
Lodge is given to a certain number of “Master Masons.” No Lodge can work
without a Master or Wardens. A Master and his Wardens “must” be Master
Masons. All Lodges, then, are Lodges of Master Masons. The phrase
often written in lodge minutes: “The Lodge of Master Masons was closed and
a Lodge of Entered Apprentices opened” cannot be a statement of fact. When
a Lodge of Master Masons is “closed,” there is an end to the work of the
evening. As a matter of fact the Lodge is “not closed” when “work” is to
be done on either of the first two degrees; it is reopened “on the Entered
Apprentice (or Fellowcraft) degree” either by actual ceremony, or “calling off
to” or “calling on to” the appropriate degree.

Many modern Masonic jurists dispute this, and reference
is made in more than one Book of Constitutions and Code to “opening a Lodge of
Entered Apprentices,” as for a corner stone laying. The general practice
of Grand Lodges, however, regardless of how their laws are worded, is to open
first on the Master Mason’s Degree, and then either re-open, or “dispense
with labor on the Master Mason’s Degree to call to labor on the entered
Apprentice’s Degree.” In Operative days, Lodges were composed of Fellows of the
Craft. Attached were a certain number of Apprentices who became “Entered”
when they passed the novate and were enrolled on the books of the Lodge.
At the heads of such Lodges were Master Masons - architects and planners of
great buildings. These received and judged the “Master’s Piece” made by
Entered Apprentices who had served their seven years and who desired to become
Fellows. At the revival of Masonry in its Speculative form in the first
Grand Lodge (1717) Lodges worked only the Entered Apprentice’s Degree. The
Fellowcraft Degree and the “Master’s Part” were conferred only in Grand Lodge.
At that time all Lodges could truly be called Lodges of Entered Apprentices,”
from which date our custom of laying corner- stones while open in the First
Degree. Shortly after the formation of the Mother Grand Lodge, the degrees
were written into their present forms by Anderson and Desaugliers and, later,
Preston. All Lodges were then given the right to confer all three degrees.
Since that time - which also saw the beginning the practice of issuing Warrants,
- all Masonic Lodges have been made up of Master Masons. Lodges are
created by Grand Lodge. Seven or more brethren who desire to form a new
Lodge petition the Grand Master; if he so desires he issues a Dispensation to
hold a Lodge. A Lodge U.D. can make Masons, but do little else, and its
Dispensation lasts only until Grand Lodge meets, when it may or may not grant a
Warrant to the U.D. Lodge to be a regular Lodge. Even after the granting
of the Charter, or Warrant of Constitution, the Lodge is not :duly constituted”
and does not become so until the Grand Master (or a brother he deputizes for the
purpose) and Grand Officers (or their representatives) perform the ceremonies of
Consecration, Dedication and constitution. This ancient ceremony differs
as to ritual in the several Jurisdictions, but the intent is the same in all,
and the general form very similar. Proceedings are opened with a prayer.
The Dedication is accomplished when the Grand Officers pour upon the piece of
furniture representing “The Lodge,” the “corn of nourishment, the wine of
refreshment and the oil of joy.” Consecration is accomplished by a prayer
to the Great Architect, and Constitution by pronouncement from the Grand Master.
Comparatively few brethren have an opportunity to see this ceremony; all should
read it in the Code, Ahiman Rezon or Book of Constitutions of the Grand Lodge.

The Entered Apprentice is informed that the form of the
lodge is that of an “oblong square.” The apparently contradictory words
come from an antiquity to which the memory of man runneth not. The “oblong
square” is the shape which our ancient progenitors imagined the world to be,
probably because the swing of the sun across the sky was longer from east to
west than its movement from north to south between winter and summer.
Masonically, the words are not contradictory, since the “oblong” is formed of
four squares, no less so that one leg of each is longer than the other.
The Pythagorean Problem (forty seventh problem of Euclid) is usually, and always
more beautifully demonstrated with a square which has one leg longer than the
other, than with the familiar Master’s square with legs of equal length.

To us the Lodge is a symbol of the world, just as the
“oblong square” symbolized the shape of the world to our ancient brethren.
Ritualistically, a Lodge has the “vast proportions” of extending indefinitely
“from East to West” stretching “from earth to heaven,” encompassing both center
and circumference. It is universal; not located necessarily in one spot,
confined to one room, one Temple, one city. In San Francisco a New York
brother is still a member of his Mother Lodge; in China the visitor to Peking
Lodge (Massachusetts dispensation) is still a member of his Boston Lodge.
Precious the thought to many a wanderer that, wherever he is, there also is a
bit of his Mother Lodge.

Extending the idea of the universality of the Lodge is
its covering, the clouded canopy. Our ancient brethren, holding their
meetings on high hills and low vales, knew no other roof. Jacob envisioned
his ladder from earth to heaven, the rungs of which we name with the most
precious teachings which come from the Lodge - faith, hope and charity.
Truly, the brother in a far city who thinks loving-ly of his Mother Lodge has
reason to carry her sacredly in his heart, since size and extent, covering and
lessons, are so great. Nor need for any sojourning brother, even if he be
where there is no Lodge for him to visit, to be without those appurtenances of
every Lodge - the furniture, the lights and the jewels. Great Lights are
to be found the world over - in every hotel room is a Gideon Bible. Square
and Compasses hang from millions of watch chains, are on countless rings, and
their images are in the minds of every Freemason. He may keep three Lesser
Lights burning in his heart, though years may pass before he sees them around
the Altar of his Mother Lodge; and as for Ashlars, the Trestlboard, Square,
Level and Plumb; he is a poor Freemason indeed who does not keep them in his
memory, for use in everyday life.

“My Mother Lodge! What tenderest associations cling
about the phrase; with what veneration do loving Freemasons speak of “Old Number
17” or “The Old Lodge” with “old” as a term of endearment. With what pride
do we think of the achievements of our Mother Lodge; the brethren who went forth
from her to war, the money she has given to the Masonic Home, the square work
she has done, the good men and true she has selected to be her sons, the good
times she has supplied in innocent gaiety for her children, her tender care of
the sick, feeble and helpless; her comforting in grief those who have loved and
lost.”

(“Foreign Countries”)

Tenderest of sentiments, loveliest of memories, dearest
of associations cling about the Mother Lodge. While men cherish so much on
the intangibles of the hidden land of the spirit, earthy, none need fear that
Freemasonry will pass away!